Psyché (play)

More specifically, the play was a product of Louis XIV's desire to re-use the Salle des Machines in the Tuileries Palace which had been built to house Cavalli's opera Ercole Amante in 1662.

[2] The theatre was sumptuous and could seat over 7000 spectators, but its excessively large stage and the associated acoustics rendered most performances inaudible.

He was responsible for inventing and outlining the plot, including the coordination of the intermèdes which involved singers, dancers and machines.

Prologue: Flora and her followers summon Venus to participate in their games (in celebration of the peace that Louis XIV has brought to the world).

The sisters confess their delight before a group of mourners arrive on stage and sing the first intermède, the plainte italienne.

At this time, Vulcan sings the second intermede, encouraging his crew of cyclops to finish building the palace.

After a love scene, Psyché impresses upon Cupid (whose identity she still does not know) that she must share her happy fate with her sisters and father.

They feed her curiosity regarding the identity of her lover and make her fear his unfaithfulness, suggesting that all the palace may be no more than a lie, an enchantment.

In the fourth intermède Psyché descends to hell, where eight Furies dance a ballet to celebrate the rage they have inspired in so sweet a goddess as Venus.

They also recount the death of her sisters, who voluntarily threw themselves off a cliff, proudly believing that Zephyr would carry them back to Cupid's palace.

Psyché, determined to regain the love of Cupid, opens Proserpine's box, hoping to enhance her beauty.

The scene changes from Hell to Heaven and a great ballet is danced by the followers of Apollo, Bacchus, Momus and Mars to celebrate the union of Cupid and Psyché.

During Molière's lifetime (that is to say over the course of the next two years), the play was given 82 times (not including the initial representations at the Tuileries) for a total profit of 77 119 livres.

The same expense that pushed Molière to reduce his cast has caused the play to become virtually unknown in our time.

But despite its impractical qualities (for today's theatre companies at least) and the limited participation of its principal author, Psyché is widely accepted to be one of Molière's greatest successes and one of his finest plays.